Assistance please

[Austrokiwi]

I came across a fragment of a document on goggle books that referred to a ( I assume) South African plant called the Thaler tree ( perhaps plant)  Supposedly it was named after the 1780 Maria  Theresa Taler. Apparently it is a green leafed plant whose leaves are the same size as the MTT.  The fragment interested me as most numismatic literature on the MTT limits the "circulation" of the coin to the east coast of Africa and the North of Africa.  The respected literature (Fischel,  Peez and Raudnitz) suggests that the MTT only penetrated to Timbuktu on the west of the continent. I have found economic references that extend this "known range" to Nigeria and Cameroon.  I therefore suspect that in Pre colonial Africa ( and prior to the opening of the Suez canal) the MTT had a much more extensive range. This is based on the fact that it was not uncommon for trade to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf would take the long route  around the "Cape"  and on to Bombay( Mumbai), or Aden.  Now can any one assist wit the following:

Has any one heard of the thaler plant?
Does any one have South African numismatic contacts that I might correspond with to find out if the MTT did indeed circulate in South Africa?

[Figleaf]

On this web page I read that Thaler is a synonym for Charlottenthaler (coming from Charlotte valley).

Peter